CoffeeColumn: Café nur für gäste

When I brought up the idea for a CoffeeColumn – where I wanted *tba to introduce and review various coffee shops on and around campus – at an editorial meeting a while back, I was met with polite indifference. Apparently most of my colleagues assumed you can only rate a coffee shop if you have exceptional taste buds enabling you to distinguish substandard and excellent coffee. And, although I understood their initial reluctance to the project, I made it quite clear that in these segments we won’t solely focus on the flavour of predominantly brown liquids but the ambiance of the places and the prices which are potentially more interesting to our fellow students. Besides I also don’t have exceptional taste buds.

I came up with the idea as a sort of coffee guide seeing that I’ve developed a slight coffee addiction since I’ve started studying and I’m always looking for new places to grab a cup of pure delight and sometimes first aid. So in its essence this is also a survival guide (at least for me).

Tamara presented the Anglarium to you, the Philturm’s cosiest place, I’ll take you to the next stop on our coffee tour: the ‘Café nur für gäste’ at the Erziehungswissenschaft building (VMP 8).

My first few semesters I spent most of the time hopping from one campus (Philturm and VMP8) to the other (Klein Flottbek) and since the Erzwiss building functioned as my daily lynchpin I was grateful to have the café to dig me out of the motivational hole I fell into after travelling around Hamburg and offer me some freshly brewed hot coffee. 1,30€ for a cup of regular coffee that actually tastes like coffee unlike at the Philmensa might sound a bit pricy but the taste makes up for the few cents more. And here’s my ‘hot tip’: the hot chocolate (1,50€) is to melt for and definitely helped me through some rather unsweet seminar sessions during the winter semesters.

And although I no longer need to backpack around town, I still venture to the café from time to time. Unlike at other places on campus you still manage to actually get some work done simply because you have actual dinner tables (though there are a couple of sofas to lounge around if you feel like it), the music is audible but not trumping your conversations, the baristas serve you with a smile and most importantly you get large cups of coffee. Plus the café serves baked delights such as muffins, croissants and Franzbrötchen (1-1.60€) and also savoury lunch options like sandwiches (2-2,60€). And if you’re just in deep need of a sugar shock, yes, they also offer sweets.

So, there you go, another coffee place on campus ticked off. Now, grab yourself a cuppa at the Café nur für gäste, refill those batteries and we’ll be onto the next stop soon.

– Maria

Maria was listening to ‘The Only Thing’ by Sufjan Stevens while writing this article.